in-cyprus 23 April 2020 -Josephine Koumettou
Member of the committee of health experts advising the government on Covid-19 Dr Leontios Kostrikis said on Thursday that beaches will likely open soon in the framework of the plan to gradually lift lockdown restrictions, philenews reports.
Asked on Active Radio to address recent reports in the press of opening churches in June and beaches in July, Kostrikis said “I would say beaches in June and churches in December.”
“President Anastasiades, who is a Limassolian and loves the sea, is our ally in the reopening of beaches. I believe beaches can open soon, and if that doesn’t happen in phase one of relaxing the measures, it may be in the second 15 days later. We are processing a plan for reopening the beaches and I believe they will open soon,” Kostrikis said.
Separately, another member of the experts committee, Dr Petros Karayiannis told CNA that the issue of sea bathing was one of the topics discussed at the Presidential Palace at the committee’s latest meeting with President Anastasiades.
“I don’t see anything dangerous with the sea. The virus is not transmitted in the sea. The only thing we have to be cautious about is gatherings, which can be avoided if people adhere to the required distances. There is a risk of infection when it comes to sunbeds but all necessary steps must be taken by Municipalities to disinfect them,” Karayiannis said.
Kostrikis said that the latest numbers of positive cases paint a very positive picture, proving the effectiveness of the strategy followed.
“In my opinion, Cyprus and other countries have very good results because we took action early, thereby preventing the virus from penetrating the community, and we are close to ‘uprooting’ it. The effort is not over but we are definitely on the right track.
“We will be constantly monitoring the epidemic and act accordingly. People need to understand that we will not fully return to normality as we knew it before the outbreak. This will only happen when we receive the vaccine against the virus,” Kostrikis said.
Asked about the level of contagiousness in Cyprus, he said that it’s very low at the moment and that he expects the first zero cases to occur in early May.
He also confirmed that the contagiousless in asymptomatic patients is relatively low, and said that he believes that the vaccine against Covid-19 will come from America.
